Concerns are building about bullying in Peninsula schools. Parents started a nonprofit

Concerned parents have formed a nonprofit to better support students who are BIPOC, LGBTQIA and neurodivergent in the Peninsula School District.

Members of the group Moms for P.E.A.C.E. have attended school board meetings since September to speak about what they say is an ongoing issue with harassment and bullying in the district. The founder, Chris Dougherty, said “the official founding of our 501(c)3 represents an exciting step forward for us” in a news release June 17.

According to the Corporations & Charities Filing System of the Washington Secretary of State, Moms for P.E.A.C.E. was registered as a nonprofit corporation on May 22.

In a phone call with The News Tribune, Dougherty, a parent of two students in the district, said she founded Moms for P.E.A.C.E. in June 2023. The group’s full name is Moms for Pride, Education, Acceptance, Compassion, Equity, and it advocates for an equitable, inclusive learning environment for all students “regardless of race or gender,” according to its mission statement.

The group has grown to about 400 members, and its nonprofit status will allow it to apply for grants and raise money to hold seminars, panels and events, according to Dougherty. She said she was using her own money to help fund their work previously, including the care baskets they made for school staff across the district and students in clubs including the Black Student Union at Gig Harbor High School and the People of Color club at Peninsula High School .

In March, Moms for P.E.A.C.E. was one of several advocacy groups to collaborate on an open letter submitted to the Peninsula School District board calling for the district to acknowledge issues with “discrimination, anti-queer hate, bullying, and racism against BIPOC/LGBTQIA+/Disabled/Neurodivergent students.”

The letter demanded that the district address the problem by taking a “restorative justice model” to change district culture to be more inclusive, increasing district-wide training and employing more diverse staff. Restorative justice in education refers to an alternative approach to disciplining students that prioritizes empathy and dialogue rather than simply punishing the wrongdoer.

Peter Fraser, a member of the group Gig Harbor for Racial Justice helped write the letter and gather signatures on the letter, read part of it at the March 19 school board meeting .

Superintendent Krestin Bahr responded to the letter on March 22 in an email to Fraser, which Fraser forwarded to The News Tribune. In the email, Bahr shared different measures the district is taking to address the problem.

What is the district doing to address the concerns raised by Moms for P.E.A.C.E.?

In an email to The News Tribune, Peninsula School District digital media coordinator Danielle Chastaine outlined several examples of efforts the district is taking to address harassment, intimidation and bullying, termed statewide as HIB .

One of those was the school board’s open study session on March 19 , where board members and school staff talked about the district’s approach to HIB and how to improve it. During the session, staff gave examples of incidents reported as HIB and how staff responded. They also discussed “restorative practices” to help restore relationships between students when possible, how staff creates support plans for targeted students who report experiencing HIB, and how staff can make themselves available and trustworthy to students.

“I think we’re working really hard. I think there’s a lot of things going well at our schools, but when I hear some of our parents, it’s clear we have work to do,” Peninsula High School principal Mike Benoit said at the study session after explaining efforts at PHS to raise awareness about issues with HIB and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Chastaine also wrote that the district uses a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework to set clear expectations for student behavior and provide for their social emotional learning (SEL). Staff and students received training on how to prevent bullying in the fall, and Puget Sound Educational Service District Equity in Education consultants have provided additional training to school leaders, according to Chastaine.

She wrote that the district regularly reviews data on student behavior and discipline in order to respond appropriately and that the new Chief of Schools, Michael Farmer, will meet with administrators later this summer and early fall to review the data and address any concerns.

“When we receive a formal HIB complaint, our school administrators begin a thorough investigation following our district’s policy and procedure 3207,” Chastaine wrote. “Most incidents are resolved quickly, with appropriate actions taken. Our principals focus on restorative practices to resolve conflicts and restore relationships, ensuring that any necessary discipline is applied appropriately.”

‘You’re failing the students’

Justin Vautrin is the parent of a daughter who recently graduated from Artondale Elementary School. He said he joined the group, which also goes by the name People for P.E.A.C.E. to include members who aren’t mothers, because he shared the group’s concerns about bullying after seeing his daughter experience it.

He shared his daughter’s experience as a student at Pioneer Elementary School, which is the district’s first magnet school with a special focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) education, during public comment at the Feb. 13 school board meeting .

Vautrin said his daughter talked with some of her peers about kissing a girl in the spring of 2023 but stopped when a student asked her not to talk about it because it made him uncomfortable. Pioneer Elementary staff later pulled her aside and told her she could not talk about kissing a girl while at school and informed her parents about her behavior.

Vautrin went on to say that the student who first asked his daughter not to talk about kissing a girl continued to harm her in a series of incidents that included punching her in the face on school grounds and threatening to kill her.

According to letters from district staff that Vautrin shared with The News Tribune, the family reported the incidents to the district, which opened multiple separate investigations into allegations of harassment, intimidation and bullying, per district policy . Each of the investigations concluded that no violation of the HIB policy had occurred, according to the letters. The letter concluding an investigation in May 2023 acknowledged that the aggressor’s actions “were against school rules and consequences have been applied.”

Her parents appealed the decision of the final investigation up to the school board, but the board maintained that “the events in question do not qualify under the technical definition of HIB,” although “the school is committed to taking appropriate steps to address the underlying interaction and future concerns relating to that same behavior,” according to the letter from the board shared by Vautrin.

The family moved her from Pioneer to Artondale Elementary in January because they felt Pioneer failed to provide a safe learning environment, according to Vautrin and a letter concluding one of the investigations in January.

Vautrin expressed frustration about the investigations and the district’s response to other parents’ reports of harassment, intimidation and bullying in a phone call with The News Tribune. His concerns about his daughter’s treatment motivated him to join other Moms for P.E.A.C.E. members in advocating for increased diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the schools.

“If you’re not doing anything and you’re not advocating for students [who commit HIB] to be taken out of schools, you’re failing the students,” Vautrin said in the phone call.

‘We’re not going to be quiet about this’

Like Vautrin, Aria Messer has gone to several school board meetings to talk about the bullying, harassment and intimidation that her child has experienced at school. At the most recent board meeting , her son Ryan also came to talk about it.

Ryan said he has been called slurs and offensive names regularly while attending Goodman Middle School. He plans to attend Henderson Bay High School next year, a choice school, because he fears how he will be treated at Gig Harbor High School .

“I may appear well-spoken, confident and secure,” Ryan said at the meeting. “However, underneath those layers is fear. Fear that if I walk into a bathroom, I’ll be harassed. Fear when someone calls me the “F” slur in the halls and just says it’s a joke, but I’m the one in trouble if I feel the need to defend myself.”

In an interview with The News Tribune, Ryan said classmates called him slurs multiple times a week for months after he came out as a member of the LGBTQ commmunity. He said he also saw kids of other diverse backgrounds get picked on every single day at school.

Aria Messer said in the same interview that she began going to the school board meetings at least once a month after others’ treatment of Ryan began severely impacting his mental health. She said she feels the culture of the school and larger community is at issue.

“My feeling is that it’s such like a[n] epidemic of racism and homophobia and transphobia, that they can’t even keep up with what’s happening,” Aria said.

Dissatisfied with the lack of action from the district, Aria said that she sees speaking at board meetings less as a way to influence the board and others in the room who disagree with her and more about letting people impacted by discrimination know that she will take their side.

“I feel like the more we show up, the more we’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be quiet about this, we’re not gonna back down about it, we’re not just gonna disappear and go away,” Aria said.

Ryan said he plans to continue coming to school board meetings as a student at Henderson Bay and advocate for others who aren’t accepted.

“I’ve gotten so sick of watching the same things over and over again, it’s created a change in me that I need to help this world be a safer place for everyone,” Ryan said.

What does the district’s harassment, intimidation and bullying investigation process look like?

The district’s process for reporting harassment, intimidation and bullying outlined in Procedure 3207P begins when a person makes a report to a staff member. It can also be done anonymously via the Vector Alert system.

The definition of harassment, intimidation and bullying encompasses any intentional message, image or act that, as quoted from the procedure:

• “Physically harms a student or damages the student’s property.

• Has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s education.

• Is so severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating or threatening educational environment.

• Has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school.”

Chastaine wrote that there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” answer for determining whether a complaint meets the criteria for HIB.

“Even if an incident doesn’t meet HIB criteria, if the behavior doesn’t align with school expectations or other district policies, our school administrators will take appropriate action to address and correct the issue,” Chastaine wrote.

School administrators also work with a designated HIB Compliance Officer who provides additional support with resolving complaints. The full process is outlined in the procedure.